title: Impact of allopurinol use on urate concentration and cardiovascular outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize patients with urate measurements by urate-lowering therapy (ULT) use and to study the impact of allopurinol treatment on cardiovascular and mortality outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort study using a record-linkage database. The study included 7135 patients aged ≥60 years with urate measurements between 2000 and 2002 followed up until 2007. A Cox regression model was used. The association between urate levels, dispensed allopurinol and cardiovascular hospitalization and mortality was determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six thousand and forty-two patients were not taking ULT and 45.9% of those (2774 of 6042) had urate concentrations ≤6 mg dl(-1) . Among 1035 allopurinol users, 44.7% (45.6% for men and 43.3% for women) reached target urate concentration. There was no significant increased risk of cardiovascular events for allopurinol users when compared with non-ULT users [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.10, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.95-1.26] and the non-ULT group with urate >6 mg dl(-1) (adjusted HR 1.07, 95% CI 0.89-1.28). Within the allopurinol use cohort, cardiovascular event rates were 74.0 (95% CI 61.9-86.1) per 1000 person years for the 100 mg group, 69.7 (49.6-89.8) for the 200 mg group and 47.6 (38.4-56.9) for the ≥300 mg group. Compared with low-dose (100 mg) users, high-dose (≥300 mg) users had significant reductions in the risk of cardiovascular events (adjusted HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.50-0.94) and mortality (adjusted HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.59-0.94).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Less than 50% of patients taking allopurinol reached target urate concentration. Higher doses of allopurinol were associated with better control of urate and lower risks of both cardiovascular events and mortality.
authors.affiliation: Medicines Monitoring Unit (MEMO), Division of Medical Sciences, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY, UK. l.wei@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Isla S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Allan D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Struthers
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: MacDonald
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000493:Allopurinol / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006073:Gout / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D006074:Gout Suppressants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D033461:Hyperuricemia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D006113:United Kingdom; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D006074:Gout Suppressants; D014527:Uric Acid; D000493:Allopurinol